It's difficult to imagine that educational programming would represent some of the best selling Blu-ray content, but that is exactly what BBC's Natural History Unit has managed to accomplish with their epic and jaw-dropping films. Today Warner is releasing their latest accomplishment titled
Human Planet, which once again explores our planet and exposes it so meticulously, that it is if one has been given plane ticket with no destination or monetary restrictions.
For the
Human Planet Blu-ray review , staff reviewer Kenneth Brown commented, "Human Planet tells a very human story. More than seventy very human stories actually, most of which take place in villages and regions where iPods and smart phones would be cast aside in favor of culture, community and shared experience." He continues, "With a terrific video presentation, an involving DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and more than 100-minutes of behind-the-lens featurettes, the Blu-ray edition of Human Planet, like Planet Earth and nearly a dozen BBC-born nature series before it, is worth owning."
The nature of the Criterion Collection is to expose lesser known films to a more general audience in the closest way possible to the original intent. But every once in a while, they are able to get their hands on a more well known film and present in a way that everyone agrees a studio could never replicate. Today, they are releasing the Brian De Palma film
Blow Out starring John Travolta. Of course, the fact that Amazon is currently this and other Criterion releases on sale today isn't hurting its sales numbers.
Staff reviewer Svet Atanasov commented in his
Blow Out Blu-ray review , "A lot of people like to compare Brian De Palma's Blow Out to Alfred Hitchcock's films and Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up, but the film has its own identity and unique message." He continues, "As expected, Criterion's Blu-ray release of Blow Out is of exceptionally high quality."
A recent surge of anime material is led by the Blu-ray release of
Eden of the East Movie I: The King of Eden which is out today. Picking up where the popular Eden of the East television series left off, fans will likely be jumping out of their seats at the opportunity to snag a copy of this film in high definition. Some other anime titles getting released today on Blu-ray include
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and
K-On! Vol. 1.
For the
Eden of the East Movie I: The King of Eden Blu-ray review staff reviewer Jeffrey Kaufman concluded, "Eden of the East: The King of Eden and its companion film (included on this Blu-ray) Air Communication are two intriguing entries in the anime canon, and they both deserve major kudos for not trodding the same old anime territory of aliens, mechas and atomic destruction. Both outings have several lingering questions which haven't yet been answered definitively, and the ultimate success of the franchise is going to rise or fall on the third film, Eden of the East: Paradise Lost, which has yet to be released on Blu-ray in the United States."
And finally today, Criterion Collection is releasing
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Blu-ray. The film had previously been released by Universal on Blu-ray, but Criterion was able to once again get distribution rights to the film and have revisited the film to tweak the video presentation. All in all, staff reviewer Svet Atanasov proclaims, "Criterion's transfer is clearly the better one. This becomes painfully obvious if one projects Criterion's Blu-ray release on a large screen and then compares it to Universal's Blu-ray release." A double-dip is in order.